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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, First Session (54-1)
2018-05-09 Daily Xml
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Transport Infrastructure

Mr KOUTSANTONIS (West Torrens) (14:48): Will the minister detail to the house the breakdown of that infrastructure spending over the next four years as informed to him by the commonwealth government?

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL (Schubert—Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Local Government, Minister for Planning) (14:49): Well, it's interesting because those opposite have touted figures from this supposed letter, so it's obvious that they have a level of information. Yes, I did receive a letter from minister McCormack last night, and we will be working with the federal government over the next coming months in the lead-up to the state budget to work on reprofiling those figures. There is money for each of these projects in the forward estimates. There is money—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: —for each of the projects over the forward estimates over these coming months.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The member for West Torrens is on two warnings, and if he utters another word he will leave the house.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Minister, please be seated.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The minister will be seated. The member for West Torrens has been on two warnings for a while and continues to interject. If he continues to interject, he will depart the chamber under standing order 137A(1), which was inserted into the standing orders from the sessional orders in the last parliament. Minister.

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: Over the coming months, we are going to do the work with the federal government to help reprofile this money, as I have said now for 42 minutes. We will be doing that in line with our priorities, where each of these projects are in their business case and design development, making sure that we also have a mind to developing a continuous pipeline of projects so that those workers and families who are relying on state governments doing their job to develop this pipeline of infrastructure investment can sleep easier in the knowledge that there is a consistent pipeline for them to move forward to.

I have visited the three major sections of the north-south corridor and had the good fortune to be able to have a chat to some of the workers who were working on the middle section of the Northern Connector. I come from a blue-collar background—I come from working in factories—and have an understanding of what it's like to do a hard day's work.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: But you walk up as a minister, and there are all the advisers and people around you—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Lee is called to order and warned. The member for Kaurna is called to order. Minister.

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: —and I wanted to take the opportunity just to have a quiet chat with some guys who do some pretty hard work. In fact, I tried to make a joke because it had been raining that morning and it meant that they couldn't work on the site because it gets pretty muddy pretty quickly. I made the joke, saying, 'Well, this is good, we can all knock off and go home for the day.' In fact, their reaction was the opposite. Their reaction was, 'No, we are accountable for delivering this project on time and on budget, and we want to get back out there and do the work that we are being paid to do.'

What they were very keen and interested in hearing was what was next because this works for them now. They have got work through this year, and they have got work through next year. Depending on which project and what profile, they have got work into 2020, but they want to know what's coming next because they have got mortgages. They are sending their kids to school. Some of them are sending their kids to private school. They want to know what is coming next. The difficulty was at the time that I spoke to them—and we are talking about the next stages of north-south, large civil construction work—there was a huge degree of uncertainty because there was nothing on the table—nothing on the table. So they think they are okay for the next 24 months, but, 'What does my family do after that?'

Those families will be sleeping a lot easier last night and tonight, and every night going into the future after last night's federal budget, because there's $1.8 billion on the table and they are placing their trust, rightfully so, in a new state government to deliver for them. It's my job, and it's our job as a new state government, to deliver this certainty for those workers—

Mr KOUTSANTONIS: Point of order: relevance, sir. The question was about correspondence—

The SPEAKER: Yes, I think the minister has finished, hasn't he? Yes. The member for Morphett.

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